Olga Taussky-Todd facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Olga Taussky-Todd
|
|
|---|---|
1932 in Göttingen
|
|
| Born | August 30, 1906 |
| Died | October 7, 1995 (aged 89) Pasadena, California, U.S.
|
| Alma mater | Doctorate, University of Vienna supervised by Philipp Furtwängler |
| Employer | National Physical Laboratory, University of London, National Bureau of Standards, California Institute of Technology |
| Organization | Vienna Circle |
| Known for | Torchbearer for matrix theory; supervised Caltech's first female Ph.D. in Math, Lorraine Foster; corrected David Hilbert's papers |
| Spouse(s) | John Todd |
| Parent(s) | Julius David Taussky, Ida Pollach |
| Awards | Fellow of Girton College, Bryn Mawr College, and the AAAS, a Noether Lecturer and a recipient of the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class |
Olga Taussky-Todd (born August 30, 1906, in Olomouc, which was then part of Austria-Hungary, and died October 7, 1995, in Pasadena, California) was a brilliant mathematician. She was born in Austria and later became a Czech-American citizen. Olga wrote over 300 important research papers. Her work focused on topics like number theory and different kinds of matrices.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Olga Taussky was born into a Jewish family on August 30, 1906. This was in a city now known as Olomouc in the Czech Republic. Her father, Julius David Taussky, was a chemist who worked in factories. Her mother, Ida Pollach, managed their home. Olga was the middle child of three sisters.
Her father hoped his daughters would choose careers in the arts. However, all three sisters became scientists! Olga's older sister, Ilona, became a chemist. Her younger sister, Hertha, became a pharmacist and later a clinical chemist.
When Olga was three, her family moved to Vienna. They lived there until the middle of World War I. Later, her father took a job managing a vinegar factory in Linz, Austria. From a young age, Olga showed a strong interest in mathematics.
After her father passed away during her last year of school, her family wanted her to study chemistry. They hoped she would take over her father's factory. But her older sister, Ilona, was already a qualified chemist and took on that role.
In Vienna at that time, the government encouraged women to go to college. So, in 1925, Olga enrolled at the University of Vienna to study mathematics.
Her Amazing Career in Mathematics
Olga Taussky started her career by studying a field called algebraic number theory. She earned her doctorate degree from the University of Vienna. Her professor, Philipp Furtwängler, was a famous number theorist.
During her studies, Olga joined a group called the Vienna Circle. This group was made up of philosophers and logicians. They discussed new ideas about how we understand knowledge and logic. Olga was one of the first women to join this important group.
Working with Matrices
Olga Taussky is most famous for her work with matrices. Matrices are like grids of numbers that mathematicians use to solve complex problems. She studied how stable these matrices were, especially complex ones. She also worked in areas like group theory and numerical analysis.
An interesting story about Olga is that she was hired by German mathematicians when she was young. Her job was to find and fix mistakes in the papers of a very famous mathematician, David Hilbert. They wanted to collect his works for his birthday. Olga was able to correct almost all of his papers!
Later, during World War II, Olga used matrices to study how airplanes vibrate. This was important for making planes safer. She worked at the National Physical Laboratory in the United Kingdom. She wrote many articles for the Ministry of Aircraft Production in London. Olga later called herself a torchbearer for matrix theory. This means she helped lead the way in this field.
Moving to New Places
In 1935, Olga moved to England. She became a Fellow at Girton College at Cambridge University. She also became a Fellow at Bryn Mawr College in the United States. In 1938, she married Jack Todd, who was also a mathematician. They had met at the University of London.
In 1945, Olga and Jack moved to the United States. They both worked for the National Bureau of Standards. In 1957, they both joined the faculty at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, California.
Olga was also a mentor to other mathematicians. She guided Lorraine Foster, who became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in Math from Caltech. She also mentored other students like Hanna Neumann and Charles Royal Johnson.
Olga Taussky stopped teaching in 1977. However, she continued to write to other mathematicians about her work. She kept sharing her ideas about matrix theory.
Awards and Special Honors
Olga Taussky received many awards for her important work.
- In 1970, she won the Ford Prize for an article she wrote about sums of squares.
- She received honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Vienna and the University of Southern California.
- She was a Fellow of the AAAS.
- She was chosen as a Noether Lecturer, which is a special honor for women in mathematics.
- In 1978, she received the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class. This is a high award from Austria.
In 1993, a group called the International Linear Algebra Society started a special lecture series. It was created to honor the important contributions Olga Taussky-Todd and her husband made to the field of linear algebra. In 2021, this lecture series became the ILAS Taussky-Todd Prize.
See also
